How the Street Fighter Movie Built Character-Specific Fights

The upcoming live-action Street Fighter movie’s fights were designed around recognizable game moves and the characters’ distinct fighting styles, according to the people who made them. Ken actor Noah Centineo says stunt coordinator John Valera researched the characters and the fights they appear in; director Kitao Sakurai describes a multi-stage storyboarding process that gave each sequence its own visual concept and story purpose.

What “every character” means

Centineo told GamesRadar+ that Valera looked into each character’s specific fighting style and the fights they appear in, because the roster’s characters come from different backgrounds. Centineo also said the film carries over signature moves from the games. That is an actor’s account of Valera’s preparation, not an independently audited production record.

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Centineo’s reference to “almost 150” characters describes the wider game franchise roster in his remark; it is not a count of the movie’s characters. The available interviews do not establish an official number of characters or fight scenes for the film.

How the fights were designed

Storyboards gave each sequence a separate identity

Sakurai says he and Valera worked together through several stages of storyboarding to develop the action. Their aim was for each fight to have its own world, visual aesthetic, and narrative reason, while translating selected techniques from the games into screen choreography. Sakurai summarized the design criterion to Cineplay: “Each fight also had to be different.”

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In a separate interview with Esquire Philippines, Sakurai also described phased storyboarding and the use of specific game moves and visual references. He named E. Honda’s steam-room sequence as the first major fight the team shot and his personal favorite, saying its look connected with the spirit of the game and the characters’ emotional state.

Game fidelity had to work as live action

The production’s stated approach was to retain recognizable moves and character identity while adapting action to what performers and a film set could safely manage. The interviews describe a combination of martial-arts performance, rigs, practical effects, and visual effects—not a claim that every game move was performed literally or without assistance.

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How the cast and crew made stylized moves practical

Callina Liang studied Chun-Li’s movement

Liang said she recorded Chun-Li’s moves from Street Fighter gameplay in slow motion to study them. GamesRadar+ reported that her preparation also included two hours a day of Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and wushu training, and that she viewed Chun-Li as kick-focused. These are Liang’s reported statements about her preparation, not independently verified training records. In an interview with Omelete, she described the film’s range of fighting styles and character-specific moves, mentioning Chun-Li’s nunchucks and Vega’s claws.

Rigs and effects helped bridge game moves and human limits

Valera told The Game that the team brought together martial artists with backgrounds ranging from wushu to boxing. For Chun-Li’s spinning bird kick, a Cirque du Soleil performer helped with harnesses and rigs to sustain the airborne movement. Valera also described collaboration with the special-effects and visual-effects teams: explosions and breakaways were safety-tested, while visual effects were used where a performer could not safely or practically execute an action. Referring to those departments, he called it “one of the most collaborative efforts” he had worked on.

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What the production account establishes—and what it doesn’t

The interviews lay out a clear method: research character styles, storyboard fights in stages, choose distinct visual and narrative concepts, then adapt game techniques through performance, rigging, and effects. They document the creators’ goals and descriptions of their process; they do not independently establish how closely the finished fights match the games or provide a complete production tally.

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